There was a time when I held the
all-time record for the most new music reviews in a single edition
of any music magazine, print or internet (67)… (sigh, and yet
Guinness did not call) and at that time I was buying new music,
basically by "hoovering" the new release wall of anything that
looked interesting.

I was an insatiable omnivore and not on
a budget.

I have not written a music review since
that time.

But I have not really changed. By
nature, I still am that ravening beast, but since I am no longer
rich I have to content myself with a dribble of new works, and
digging deeper into the significant vaults of my own existing
collection. See, for many years I actually bought more music than I
could ever critically listen to… and now I have the time (and the
need) to wander back through those misty corridors, and
re-familiarize myself with my "stacks of wax." There are forgotten
delights aplenty.

When I resumed writing for PFO, I
made the decision not to follow any format or convention other than
my own and the English language (nominally). I decided to write as
closely as I could to my true nature. As long as David Robinson
would print it, I would write as I wished.

So now… rather than doing "new
release" music reviews, which is the prevailing custom, and doing
one album at a time, I have decided to resume writing about music
from the most organic standpoint of all; what I am freely, and
actually listening to as I go about my life.

I don't care when it was released and in
what recording or distribution format, although I will provide that
information, when it is available.

These are not some self-indulgent lists
of favorites… (I may even write about music I don't like) but
rather whatever is in rotation in my room that I determine is
deserving of attention.

Disclaimer: If audiophile
recordings appear, it is by coincidence only.

Since I am an omnivor… pick through
the listings… your preferred genre will surely appear, if not in
this issue, in the next. Or, do something adventurous. Read about
music in other genres than those you typically frequent. You may
develop curiosity, and of course, we all know that curiosity is the
bane of the well-ordered mind.

Over his long and groundbreaking career,
Mr. King has managed to transcend his roots-genre origins and become
a nearly universally known artist. Live In Cook County Jail was done
before he achieved that sort of recognition. It is a raw, vibrant…
live performance, and of course, it is situated in blues
central (the infamous Cook Country Jail). All of the ingredients are
here for a memorable listening experience.

From, "Every day I have the Blues,"
to his arguably most well known tune, "The Thrill is Gone," this is
B. B., unadorned, unaffected and not so smooth and polished as he
became over the years, when at times his performances seemed almost
"phoned in."

Recording quality is precisely what it
should be for an analog remote in a county jail, but very
listenable.

I put this disc on for background one
unaccountably sunny Oregon December Sunday morning, when I had lots
to do. Mistake. The raw energy of a mature, but still electric B. B.
crooning and crying, the band playing so tight you could not drive a
nail between them… B. B.'s classic stage patter… and the music, ah
yes the music… the music just kept drawing me back into the room
and pulling me down on the couch to listen.

The best music does this to me… pulls
at me until I shed the irons of distraction, draws me over the
sea-washed decks, and onto th rocks of indolence. There I sit…
transfixed. The siren song, I love you so.

This is a remarkable work, by a national
icon… taken at the peak of his abilities. This is the real
blues, executed with wit, taste and faultless musicianship.

To understand what I mean by "real
blues," go listen to one of Eric Clapton's pallid recent attempts,
and then listen to this. If you can't tell the difference you should
sell your music collection and go play pachinko. Don't get me wrong,
"Crossroads" was a high-water mark in rock music, and "Lay
Down Sally" is charming, but as much as Eric loves the blues, he
should let them be. That ship sailed for him after the turmoil and
torture that surrounded Layla and Other Love Songs.

If by some mischance you don't already
have this classic B.B. King work in your collection …stop reading
this and go on the net and find it (I am assuming you will have a
choice of CD and vinyl, if you poke around). You will thank me.

Two Women - Two Generations - Sisters of
Different Mothers - Blossom Dearie and Stacy Kent

I can think of few pleasures more
reliable, more sublime than Stacy Kent, or Blossom Dearie, with
their gentle little girl voices, softly singing an old jazz
chestnut, while I sip something warm and spicy, hopefully in the
company of something warm and spicy. This music is about
sophistication, subtlety and nuance… and lots and lots of sex. I
can play these two for anyone of any age, and there is always a
surprised smile of appreciation. It is unabashedly pretty stuff, as
easy to quaff as a late harvest Riesling.

Oh, please… when this lovely young
woman gently insinuates she has a crush on you …well, you should be
so lucky. This album is just yummy, from "Under a Blanket of Blue,"
to Bob Hope's, hopelessly overplayed, "Thanks for the Memory." It
all neatly walks the delicate balance between romantic sweetness and
treacle, and never missteps. Every time I play this disc I am
vaguely disappointed when it ends. The only cure? More Stacy Kent.
Sonics are first rate. (More on Stacey in just a bit)

Thirty-eight years before Stacy released
Dreamsville, we have her sister (artistically speaking)
Blossom Dearie at the absolute top of her form in this quietly
surprising recording. In this acid world we all currently inhabit,
we are used to shouting and explosions and ponderous THX calibrated
music to punctuate even the most banal of things. Here, as with
Stacy, we move into the jasmine scented world of Coco Channel
dresses, vodka tonics, and wistful understatements. Backed by a
perfectly composed small combo, this is not to be missed.

How talented do you have to be to pull
off, "Tea for Two," and "Surrey with the Fringe on Top?"
(The first two cuts on the album) without a trace of condescension,
or even a wink? "Teach me Tonight" is frankly sexual, and "It
Amazes Me" is so sweetly innocent, it is completely believable
and absolutely seductive.

I have listened to this disc a
gerzillion times, and I still smile when she sings the "Doodlin'
Song."

Almost as highly regarded for her piano
skills as her dulcet, Windex-clear voice, Blossom is a national
treasure and never more evident on this virtually perfect outing.

I suspect you will play hell finding
this on vinyl, but the CD sounds very good indeed.

25 years, over twenty albums, and yet
pretty much unknown in the states, this British artist manages to
consistently pull off one of the most difficult poses in all of
entertainment: pretension. Good humored, grandiose productions that
always have his luscious baritone voice perfectly poised and
centered, he is at once over the top, and completely accessible.

Like Dr. Frazier Crane (Kelsey Grammar),
Rea manages this feat while being charming and entertaining at the
same time; and, for the same reasons I suspect—intelligence and
talent.

This is my favorite of his discs (I have
several). It starts with a couple of minutes of ethereal noise and
voices that slowly solidify into a rumble and then that voice of his
comes out of the background …

"Stood still on a highway, I saw a
woman, by the side of the road. With a face that I knew like my own.
Reflected in my window. Well she walked up to my quarter light. And
she bent down real slow. A fearful pressure, paralyzed me in my
shadow."

And so begins the album's title cut,
"The Road to Hell."

Pretentious? You betcha, and yet he
pulls it off so well you can only reach the pretentious place in
retrospect. When he's doing it, it just pretty much works. From the
evils of network news, to child abuse, just about anyone else would
descend into mawkish pandering. He never does.

As cloying as "Tell Me There's a Heaven"
initially seems to be, the point of the song is not that suffering
is justified and always has a purpose; quite the contrary, the POINT
is that pointless suffering makes questioning heaven fair game.

Ironically, one of my favorite songs
about American is on this disc, "Texas." This broad, happy paean
extols the virtues of "big steaks, big girls, no trouble there,"
so convincingly, one has to remember he's a Brit.

STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND GO BUY THIS!
STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND GO BUY THIS! STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND
GO BUY THIS! STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND GO BUY THIS! STOP WHAT YOU
ARE DOING AND GO BUY THIS! STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND GO BUY THIS!
STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND GO BUY THIS! STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND
GO BUY THIS! -

Twenty five tracks of perfection. My
heart soars to know those tapes are still intact and this masterful
mix makes them sound as fresh as the day they were made.

This album is full of ironies, not the
least of which is the song everyone bought the album for ("One of
Us") has absolutely nothing whatever to do with the rest of the
album, or with Joan in general. The unabashedly pop hooky, "One of
Us," demonstrates nothing of the fact this young woman has more in
common with Janis Joplin than some slick pop singer, catching the
one hit train (a la, Natalie Imbruglia).

I remember cueing this disc up with some
mild curiosity about what kind of an album could be constructed
around the single… and got slammed into the seat by visceral, raw
and absolutely stunningly done, raw-bone bluesy rock. It's all about
sex, "Right Hand Man," "Let's Just get Naked," drugs, "St. Teresa,"
and rock and roll (everything on the album BUT "One of Us."

Then she disappeared. No more albums.

I managed to catch her in concert
shortly after her second (and sadly spotty) album Righteous Love,
finally was released in 2000. As she talked about it, you could
easily tell she was as ambivalent about it as most of the listeners
were going to be… saying something to the effect of, "Oh well, I
can always make another one."

How was she in concert?

Well, the concert was fatally flawed by
this arrogant ass of a mixing engineer. Despite pleas from the
audience and even from Joan, he steadfastly made the bass guitar the
star. After fifteen minutes, I wanted to wrest the Colt .45 away
from the security guard and pop a cap in his ass. NO ONE at that
concert would have testified against me.

On stage Joan was achingly similar to
Janis (right down to the high heel shoes) in her diminutive, fragile
persona, and in her willingness to give everything she had (even her
insecurity) to the audience. Tiny, very sexy girl on platform shoes,
she was always the supplicant, never the diva.

When she finally gave up on the sound
and just sang, man… again, echoes of Janis.

Like Tracy Chapman, whose first album
Fast Car has to rank as one of the best pop albums ever made,
Relish is nearly perfect, and stands in front of the pale of her
second outing.

But these are still relatively young
women and I continue to hope for something truly substantial again
from both of them.

(Note, my coverage of Joan will
continue with two releases, subsequent to Righteous Love…
stay tuned)

For now… if she never did anything ever
again, Relish is a classic and not to be missed. To have had
one album of this quality is something her peers should pray for.

A lifetime ago… wandering the stifling
streets of a famous southern city, seeking… something. Music
wafts from a dozen doorways… this is another world complete. Sweat
gathers at each joint and I don't care. There is bougainvillea and
marijuana in the air.

Then the steely hand of an over-driven
Gibson reaches out from a dark hole and grabs me. I wander in.
Tranced. I am struck with the smell of cigarettes, beer and hot
tubes. On stage this blowsy, big haired blonde is gyrating and
snarling and singing her ass off. The kind of music you feel right
behind the belt buckle.

I bought her CD.

This is one of those performers where
you just shake your head; unable to understand why she is not better
known. Beautiful, sexy, great performer… the whole enchilada. She
even did a short tour with SNL singing with bandleader, G. E. Smith.
If you think back you will probably remember her, platinum hair, big
boobs and singing like there was no tomorrow.

In her own words
..."I
give it to an audience straight, which is the way I like it myself.
Yes, I like to shout, and I like to croon, and I love to wail. I
just need to get in the groove and rock—not think too much about it—tear it up or soothe it over. I've loved rock n' roll since I was
a little girl, and I'll love it forever. It's my greatest kick and
my greatest privilege to be able to get up on a stage and rip it
apart. That's rock n' roll to me. I'm here to set your soul on
fire."

Exactly.

She holds the
distinction for doing one of the five top sexy songs I have ever
heard, "Sugar Melts."

"There was sugar
on the window, sugar on the floor, everywhere was sugar. My mind was slippin', honey was drippin',
and lawd have mercy on me!"

Among the many
ironies of my life are the many odd places from which I encounter
new music. Of course I listen to alternative radio in the car (when
I force myself to listen to radio at all), but if I do hear
something interesting, it is always in the middle of a play list of
twelve, and I never hear who the artist might be. So I am always
deeply grateful for the "care packages" I get from my girlfriend's
adult daughter, Emily, who while still shy of twenty, loves vinyl
and Frank Sinatra. Every so often, perhaps in appreciation of my
cooking, she introduces me to new music of merit. Bless her heart.

Cosmic Game
is alternative music even old farts can love. Much more canted
towards the trippy, mellow psychedelic than hard-edged rock, this
Rob Garza-Eric Hilton project band features a host of contributors
from David Byrne of Talking Heads to Gunjan and Perry Farrell of
Flaming Lips. The sixteen cuts fuse world-music; dub rhythms and
even reggae into a surprisingly tasty whole. Not at all challenging,
even for danceless old white men, it will definitely alter your
state of mind. Tasty!